


In the Woods

by BeveStuscemi



Category: Silent Hill (Video Game Series)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Pre-SH4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 09:04:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17722229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeveStuscemi/pseuds/BeveStuscemi
Summary: Jasper had spent the last four years of his life chasing skinwalkers, investigating Mayan blood sacrifices and digging deeper into the bloody horror beneath Silent Hill’s history and had never once been unnerved.Until tonight.There was something about Walter Sullivan that frightened him.





	In the Woods

Jasper gripped the coffee tighter in his grasp, his hands were so cold that he didn’t even register the heat seeping through the cardboard and scalding his palms. He took a sip and shuddered as the hot liquid ran down his throat and into his gut. He blamed Sein for this. Sein was always too stupid to scope an area out before visiting and now they’d been forced to sit outside the campus dormitories until nightfall before they could gain access.  
“Drop the scowl, Jasper. I told you I’m sorry.” Sein said when he noticed Jasper’s frown. It didn’t move.  
Bobby emerged from behind a tree, where he’d been answering nature’s call. “It was dumb of you to assume this was a city university. This waiting has probably screwed us over. By the time we actually meet the dude, he’ll wanna go to sleep.”  
Sein sighed in annoyance. “I’m sorry man! I just guessed we’d roll up outside his dorm, have a nice convo and be on our way. I didn’t know the whole college dorms were walled in with security.”  
“Which is why you should have researched.” Bobby said plainly.  
“Suck my dick, Bob. I don’t see you or Jasper doing anything. May I remind you it’s _my_ car we’re using? And that I’m the one carrying our stuff?” He hooked his thumb at the large backpack on his shoulders.  
“Knock it off, man. I do a lot for this group. It was me who got us that interview with that Navajo chick.”  
“Whatever, man.” Sein brushed him off. “What’s this guy’s name again? Wyatt?”  
“Walter.” Jasper said suddenly, breaking his silence. “Walter Sullivan.”  
“Any idea what he looks like?” Bobby asked, moving over Jasper and leaning against the wall with him.  
“Nope. Just that he lives in West Bank Dormitory, Block Six, bottom floor.”  
“That’s good at least. We can knock on his window or something so we don’t actually need access.”

Sein pulled himself up on the wall and looked over. Block Six was on the east side of the accommodation section, with someone on the top floor proudly displaying a sign with “STILL BETTER THAN BRAHMS!” written on it.  
“Not hard,” Sein chuckled. “There’s kindergartens with smarter people than Brahms College.”  
Bobby poked him in the side. “Come on Sein! Is the security guy there or not?”  
“I can see a flashlight but he’s heading west. Think he’s checking out the other section before this one.”  
Bobby joined Sein on the wall, huffing as he did so.  
“Careful fatass, we don’t wanna break the damn thing.”  
Bobby cussed him out before landing on the other side of the wall, Sein in pursuit. Jasper threw the rest of his coffee behind a bush before joining his friends on the other side. He landed foul and collapsed onto his arm and into some dirt, crushing a few plants as he did so. He rolled his eyes at Sein and Bobby’s laughter and dusted himself off. The accommodation section was well-maintained and peaceful. A few students could be seen at the far end but the three men were concealed in darkness to be noticed. A large fountain stood centre of the section a few benches scattered on the freshly cut lawn. Jasper almost felt bad for crushing the plant.  
“No time like the present.” Bobby said as he pointed towards Block Six.

They scaled the side of the wall until they reached the block, fearing that they might be caught by one of the students. Two older students walked past them but they were too engrossed in a conversation about English literature to really pay them any attention.  
“They do a course on Native American studies here,” Jasper whispered as they rounded a corner. “Might apply if senior year goes well.”  
“Folklore and stuff?” Bobby asked.  
“Guess so, might go well with the Silent Hill project we’re doing.”  
“That’d be cool. I think this is it here!”  
They stopped at the side of the building and Sein craned his head to look in through a window. It revealed the first-floor kitchen, seldom lit with nobody in it.  
“He must be in his room.”  
They crept out from the darkness and in front of the building. The building was a red-brick affair with white drip mouldings and wooden framed windows. The leftmost window revealed a female student in pink pyjamas, reading on her bed.  
“That must be Walter.” Jasper said dryly.  
“You wish.” Sein said, smiling his usual toothy smile. “Guess he’s on the other side.”

They approached the right window. The curtains were drawn but a dim light was glowing behind the faded blue fabric and a voice could definitely be heard behind it. Bobby and Sein drew closer, the leaves beneath their feet crunching as they did so. Yet Jasper couldn’t move. Something was keeping him in place.  
Bobby knocked twice on the window and waited for a response. Sein looked over to Jasper.  
“You trying to get us caught? Get over here!”  
Jasper grimaced and moved closer and his heart began to pound when he saw the shuffling of the curtains.  
“ _Oh shit!”_ Bobby mouthed in excitement when he heard the window unlatch. This was followed by the sudden opening of the blue floral curtains.  
“Hello?”  
The three friends were suddenly at a loss for words. Awkward erring and fidgeting reminded all three of them that they hadn’t actually _planned_ how they’d speak to Walter let alone convince him to summon the Devil.  
“…hi.” Bobby said finally and Walter frowned.  
“May I help you?”  
“We’re like… not actually students here but…”  
“We heard you…like know _stuff_ …like creepy shit…”  
“Can you summon the Devil?” Jasper said finally, surprising himself and his friends. Walter didn’t even flinch. He _laughed_.  
“Summoning the Devil? Is that what you call it?” He smiled and Bobby and Sein relaxed considerably, but not Jasper. There was something about the way this man smiled. It was too much teeth and not enough emotion in the eyes. Behind a mop of blonde hair was two dark pools, boring into them. It didn’t feel right.  
“Sorry to disturb you, man. We’ll just go.” Sein dug his heel into Jasper’s foot and snarled at him.  
“You insane, man?” Bobby asked him. “We haven’t even argued our case yet!”  
Walter laughed again. “I don’t need to hear it. If you’re interested, I can spare some time to show you.”  
Bobby’s jaw dropped, Sein spluttered in shock.  
“No way, man! That’s cool!”  
“Let me get a few things to prepare and I’ll meet you here in five. I know the perfect place for demonology.”  
The curtains closed and Bobby and Sein high-fived. Jasper, with a dull ache in his foot and anxiety rising, chewed his lip.

Walter emerged from Block Six in due time. His height was another reason Jasper felt uneasy. Jasper was already tall for a senior but Walter towered above him, dressed in a large coat that emphasised broad shoulders and a large frame. This only added to his friend’s excitement.  
“Where we headed man?” Bobby asked, retrieving his occult book from Sein’s backpack. Sein had already taken out his camera.  
“There’s a small forest on the outskirts of campus, hardly anyone will be here this time of night.”  
“Ooooh, spooky!” Sein said in mock falsetto, nudging Jasper in the ribs. Jasper fell back behind them, his pace deliberately slow. He watched as they bombarded Walter with questions. Is it _the_ Devil or a lesser one? From an Abrahamic religion or a polytheistic one? Did it have any insidious intent for mankind? Walter’s answer to all those questions was a simple ‘Yes’, which did little to alleviate the anxiety in Jasper’s gut.

Walter led them out of the main campus, into the part where the walkways quickly disappeared into the treeline and where the large buildings soon faded into the distance, along with the light and sense of safety they provided. The forest was still dense, even with autumn turning into winter. Jasper shuddered, they were now so far in that he couldn’t even hear the occasional shouts of rowdy college students. Even the insects were silent. This was a bad omen. This was _wrong_.  
Walter led them past a clearing and deeper into woodland, where they were met with an incline.  
“The Devil is a proud man,” Walter explained. “He’s more likely to agree to a summoning if we’re on high ground. He likes to look down on you.”  
This even unnerved Bobby and Sein.  
“I’m gonna have a quick piss,” Sein said, voice shaking slightly. “I don’t think I wanna go in my pants in front of the Prince of Darkness.”  
Walter nodded and Sein ran off to the side, turning a corner behind some trees. Bobby stared up to Walter.  
“So, the Devil is your friend? He will show up?”  
Walter gave a small, gentle smile. “No, he’s not my friend,” He continued to smile at Bobby and Jasper. “Don’t hide down there guys, come up.”  
Sein reemerged from the trees, somehow with more confidence. “Okay. I’m ready.” Bobby nodded in stiff agreement and they followed Walter up the incline until they were swallowed up by darkness.  
“JASPER? You coming or not?” Bobby shouted. Jasper’s legs shook. Something was so off.  
“No…I’m gonna stay down here.”  
“Fine, pussy.” Bobby’s own voice was the antithesis of confidence and even Jasper could hear that. But Jasper wasn’t prepared to leave them with Walter. He sat on a tree stump, as far away from the incline as he could manage, but still close enough to hear Walter’s low voice.

There was the sound of rummaging up on the hill, and the unmistakable sound of a match being lit. Suddenly, there was light on the hill, a soft glow of embers that cast shadows into the meandering trees though the three figures were too far back to be visible. Bobby and Sein talked to each other but were soon ushered into silence by Walter who claimed he needed concentration. He began to hum in an earthy voice, too broken to be melodic but hypnotic regardless. It was spoken in a language Jasper had never heard, though it had the same rise and fall in pitch as some of the Native American languages he had studied. Yet there was nothing beautiful about this demonic humming.  
Minutes passed and Jasper swayed along with the humming, entranced by the stilted, broken tune. His mouth opened and closed as though he was singing in time with it, words that he did not know or understand. Eyes glazed over, mouth agape, Jasper craned his neck towards the sky and up to the moon. He wanted his mother.

It was a scream that brought him back to reality. Loud and deafening, the wail of somebody in pain. Jasper fell off the stump and landed into the dirt. The scream continued to screech into the night and the embers of the fire flickered erratically.  
“ _Oh God! Oh my God, what is that? HELP ME!”_   Sein’s voice accompanied the scream and Jasper began to panic. He was frozen in fear, unable to move.  
_“HELP ME!”_  
Among Bobby’s screams and Sein’s pleads for help a third voice broke out into the night, calm and confident.  
“Still down hiding down there? Come up to us, Jasper! You came all this way to see me!”  
Jasper scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could. The Devil continued to taunt him, beckoning him back to the hill and he could have sworn he heard his friends beg for him to not leave them.

Dodging trees, tripping over mud and jumping over the rivulets that ran through the forest, Jasper found his way back to town, having forgotten how to get back to the campus. He ran through the street, sweat dripping down his face and nearly collapsing from strain. He stopped outside of a drug store, shaking and trembling. The screaming had stopped.  
The store owner peered through the window before rushing out to help him.  
“Jesus, son. You okay?”  
“Devil,” Jasper stuttered, eyes wild in fear.

“D-d-devil in th-the w-woods.”


End file.
